The first photo of a Large-billed Seedeater was made in French Guyane of a bird smuggled out of Suriname. A black bird with a pale bill and a liitle white on its wing. This seedeater is the best known cagebird in Suriname with its local name of 'Twa twa'. It has diverse dialects in its song and some people can recognise whether a bird came from the coastal area or from the Sipaliwini savanna or farther away (Brazil). The Twatwa has become a rare bird in Suriname because of wide-spread trapping. In seven years in Suriname I never heard a wild bird singing in the marshes of the coastal region. Maybe some are still around in the savannas in the south. But a recent report says it even disappeared there (Otte Ottema, Stinasu Januray 2001). A male lives often with more than one female, although if both are rare, that might be difficult to achieve. A species of this family with an even larger beak, that stays black even for the older males (Oryzoborus maximilliani, the great-billed seed-finch) might also be present in Suriname. It has been captured in all neighbouring countries.
If you want to see a bird, you must be in town. In Paramaribo, Nickerie or in the Bijlmer (Amsterdam) songbird competitions for Large-billed Seedfinch are held, and like in Rio de Janeiro, also for the Lesser seedfinch, O. angolensis (see video where you hear these last ones singing). Some birds make longer songs with more repetitions than others and win. Good birds are highly prized and people take their bird with them where ever they go. Tapes with songs of good-singing birds are sold for the teaching of young birds. Luckily, many of the young birds are home-bred nowadays. Some are imported from Brazil.
Photo of the twatwa by J.H. Ribot, Avifauna Alphen. Photos of the contests in Paramaribo and Nickerie also by J.H. Ribot.
Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least 4 observations on different days and the largest ones 10 or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
Both pictures by J.H. Ribot, avifauna Alphen.
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